Pres­i­dent Obama in Cuba at start of his­toric visit

Ha­vana: Pres­i­dent Barack Obama has ar­rived in Cuba for a his­toric visit to the is­land and talks with its com­mu­nist leader.

He is the first sit­ting US pres­i­dent to visit since the 1959 rev­o­lu­tion, which her­alded decades of hos­til­ity. “Look­ing for­ward to meet­ing and hear­ing di­rectly from the Cuban peo­ple,” he tweeted on ar­rival. Mr Obama will meet Pres­i­dent Raul Cas­tro, but not re­tired revo­lu­tion­ary leader Fidel Cas­tro, and the pair will dis­cuss trade and political re­form. The US pres­i­dent emerged smil­ing from Air Force One with First Lady Michelle and their daugh­ters Sasha and Malia. Hold­ing um­brel­las, the party walked in light driz­zle along a red car­pet to be greeted by Cuban For­eign Min­is­ter Bruno Ro­driguez. Two hours af­ter land­ing, Mr Obama greeted staff from the re­opened US em­bassy, call­ing his trip “a his­toric visit and a his­toric op­por­tu­nity”. The Oba­mas later be­gan a walk­a­bout in his­toric Old Ha­vana with a visit to a cathe­dral. BBC